Russian adds to WTA woe

By William Johnson in Rome

8:16PM BST 16 May 2002

The main attractions of the women's game are falling like ninepins. With the sport still reeling from the news that Martina Hingis might not play again and Wimbledon champion Venus Williams unfit to compete this week because of a wrist injury, the No 1 pin-up, Anna Kournikova, pulled up lame here yesterday at the Italian Open.

The Russian, who is yet to win a WTA title despite her massive earnings and popularity, has only recently returned to fitness after a foot injury and she retired through cramp in Warsaw last week.

She considered withdrawing again after receiving three minutes of treatment for a groin strain midway through the second set against the wily Spaniard, Virginia Ruano Pascual. But Kournikova soldiered on, hoping she could turn things round and reach the last eight.

Kournikova, who toiled in vain to avert a 6-3, 6-2 defeat, reckons her latest setback is minor and will not prevent her from competing at the French Open the week after next.

The Russian expressed her sympathy for Hingis, her doubles partner, who has a serious foot problem. "My injury is going to go away in a week or so," she said. "It's not like a bone or a joint."

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Ruano Pascual faces the fifth-seeded Belgian, Justine Henin, in the first of today's quarter-finals. If Henin, the winner in Berlin last week, comes through, she will play her third-seeded compatriot, Kim Clijsters, winner of the previous week's event in Hamburg.

Serena Williams looks threatening in the opposite half of the draw. She has conceded only six games in her two matches so far.